Deadline looms in Sudan crisis

But in other key areas, progress has been far less evident. Several last-minute gestures and statements made by the government have been found hollow by critics when scrutinized closely.

For example, on Monday, after months of denying ties to the janjaweed, the Arab militias largely responsible for the Darfur atrocities, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told reporters that 200 janjaweed had been arrested and were being tried in batches in Darfur. A good sign - if not for the fact that, reportedly, most of them were either minor figures or not janjaweed at all. Many were already in jail for other offenses.

Likewise, eyebrows were raised a day earlier when Justice Minister Ali Mohammed Osman Yassin handed over to the UN's Human Rights Commission a list of 30 Janjaweed suspected of serious human rights abuses, including rape. Previously, the government had denied reports of systematic rapes; now they were asking for "help from international observers" in passing along any information. But again, none of the leading janjaweed, suspected of having ties to the government, were mentioned.

And on Saturday, Khartoum signed an agreement with the International Organization for Migration, encouraging the voluntary return of refugees, who number more than 1.2 million, to their homes or safe areas protected by an expanded police presence. A welcome but useless move, say observers, because most displaced people are still terrified of leaving the camps because the janjaweed, who sent them fleeing in first place are still armed and running free. At a meeting in New York on Tuesday, UN Assistant Secretary-General Tuliameni Kalomoh confirmed that attacks were indeed continuing.

Finally after days of rejecting additional African Union troops and monitors to help disarm the janjaweed and maintain the fragile cease-fire, Sudan backpedaled Wednesday at peace talks in Nigeria, saying an unspecified number of troops and monitors would be allowed in. The UN and AU are asking for a 3,000-strong force to start with. Right now there are only 150 troops and 80 monitors on the ground. But Agricultural Minister Majzoub al-Khalifa Ahmad, Khartoum's envoy to the talks insisted that the number and timing was still to be determined. According to Mr. Prendergast and others, however, the janjaweed are being integrated into security bodies, making a mockery of such self-policing, they say.

The situation in Darfur began back in February 2003 when rebels captured several cities in the region. The government responded with a bombing campaign, along with allegedly arming the janjaweed, exploiting historical rifts between the area's Arabs and ethnic Africans. Many cease-fires have been violated along the way.

Still, Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail is "sure that the Security Council will announce there is total cooperation from the Sudanese government to achieve peace." He is generally optimistic about the upcoming deadline, he said Sunday.

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